Plantation voters to choose mayor, new council member

For the second time, Mayor Diane Veltri Bendekovic and Councilman Jerry Fadgen will compete to run the city.

Voters head to the polls March 10 to elect a council member and a strong mayor, who helps set the council agenda, oversees the police and fire chiefs, and proposes the budget.

Qualifying for the March election ended Sunday.

Councilwoman Lynn Stoner was automatically re-elected because no one else filed to run for the seat.

In 2011, Bendekovic, whose father, Frank Veltri, ran Plantation for almost a quarter-century, defeated Fadgen and another candidate by getting more than half the vote.

Fadgen's council seat is up for March even though he only served two years. He had won a seat that filled the remainder of a term left vacant by Councilwoman Sharon Uria who had resigned.

Whoever wins the seat will serve a nearly four-year term.

The contenders are Jeff Holness, who has run for Plantation Council in the past and whose cousin is County Commissioner Dale Holness; political newcomer Claudette Hammond; former Councilman Rico Petrocelli; Louis Reinstein, who ran unsuccessfully in a 2012 primary for the Florida House; and former Councilman Peter Tingom.

This is the last time residents will take to the polls in March.

In 2014, more than 19,000 residents, more than 75 percent of the votes cast, approved moving city elections to November.

The rationale was the city could save money by coinciding with federal, state and county elections.